


Once the Music Starts

by Unironicdokis



Category: Ghostbusters (2016), Ghostbusters - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Historian Abby, Roleswap, Scientist Patty
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-08-08 07:13:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7748152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unironicdokis/pseuds/Unironicdokis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Step 1: Talk to Holtzmann</p><p>Step 2: Get her to remove the book from publication</p><p>Step 3: Walk out there and go about her day like nothing happened</p><p>-</p><p>It's a roleswap au? Patty is the new protagonist (as the Erin stand-in & particle physicist), Holtzmann is her former best friend, Erin is Holtzmann's new partner, and Abby is an MTA worker. The basic plot is the same, but I will be making changes as I see fit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once the Music Starts

Step 1: Talk to Holtzmann

Step 2: Get her to remove the book from publication

Step 3: Walk out there and go about her day like nothing happened

They were straightforward enough steps to follow, and definitely not rocket science for particle physicist Patty Tolan, but for some reason all Patty could do was stand outside Holtzmann’s office like walking inside was the hardest thing in the world. It was that stupid book; that terrible book that should have never been published and was ruining her chances for tenure. When that old man had addressed her in the empty lecture hall and practically shoved the front cover in her face, it was like the return of some horrible nightmare come to haunt her (a little too appropriate all considering the subject mater). She didn’t know what was worse, the absurdity of the concept of ghosts or that photo of her on the back flap that had got to be at least ten years old.

All she had to do was talk to Holtzmann. At least, that’s what she was hoping was all it would take. Sure, Holtzmann had a history of being difficult to work with, but she could do this, right? She was Patty freakin’ Tolan. She had this.

“Hello?” asked Patty as she stepped warily into the room, eyes darting around the room as she took the set-up in.

First things that caught her eye were all the equipment, wires, machinery, and gadgets scattered all over the place, but not a second later she spotted two women standing next to each other behind a large table, the one with brown hair and blunt bangs and dressed in a lab coat and was scribbling something down and muttering quietly to the other, who was fiddling with a blowtorch and some sort of contraption and wore big tinted yellow goggled and a bulky metal helmet with all sorts of bulbs and wires coming out of it.

“We’ve been expecting you,” said the brunette, sounding absentminded as neither women even bothered to look up from the table. Patty didn't recognize the woman, but the other lady is so obscured by her headgear that it’s impossible to tell who it is. “Just put the box right there,” she continued, gesturing to the table with her free hand as she continued to write. “Holtzmann, can you get my briefcase? I got the tip.”

“Excuse me?” asked Patty, unable to keep the irritation from her voice.

The brunette looked up, and upon seeing Patty standing in the doorway her eyes went wide. “Sorry! So sorry. We, um, we thought you were… Chinese.” She was red in the face, it probably just dawning on her exactly how weird that sounded. “Holtzmann.” She said, presumably to the other woman, but still not taking her eyes off Patty. When she was ignored she tried again. “Jillian.”

The woman in goggles continued not to look up but quipped, “Hang on, I’m in the middle of a very unstable process, one mistake on my part and the whole building goes up in flames," and despite the years gone by, Patty definitely recognized that this was exactly the woman she’d been looking for.

“It’s kinda important.”

Holtzmann shut off her blowtorch, put down her contraption, and shot the other woman a cheeky grin. “I’m kidding, what’s up?”

She nodded over to where Patty stood, and Holtzmann and the other lady both turned to finally address her.

“Um, I’m here to see Jillian Holtzmann,” said Patty, even though it sounded much more like a question than a statement.

For a moment, Holtzmann just stood there in silence. With all the headgear, it was impossible for Patty to see the expression on her face. The other woman eyed her expectantly, clearly waiting for Holtzmann’s lead. Then without warning, Holtzmann ducked behind the table, it ratting slightly with her movement.

“Holtzmann,” hissed the other woman before realizing that Patty was still standing there. She smiled apologetically, moving from behind the table and holding out her hand, which Patty shook. “Sorry, she's not usually this… shy. I’m Erin Gilbert, I work here. We’re colleagues, Holtzmann and I. We work together, but you probably already put that together. I’ve heard wonderful things about you.”

“Really?” asked Patty dubiously, aware that Gilbert still hadn’t let go of her hand.

“Well, no,” she admitted. “At least, not entirely. Still, I can’t believe I’m finally meeting you, I love your work. Your book, the one you wrote with Holtzmann, changed my life--and I’m rambling. Look at that, I can’t stop shaking your hand. Okay, letting go now.”

Patty chuckled at Gilbert’s babbling and apparent awkwardness. It was endearing in a way. “That’s very flattering, thank you. But that book is gibberish, it was so long ago.”

“Oh, but it’s not! Your work with the paranormal is fascinating. Holtzmann and I are just on the brink of something amazing, I can feel it.”

“Really?” asked Patty, her interest piqued. “You found any ghosts?”

“Well, no,” she admitted, “not really. But we’re close. Sort of.”

“Well, I wish you and Holtzmann the best of luck, but the two of us tried for years, and we never found anything, so—“

“Ghosts are real,” snapped Gilbert all of a sudden, catching Patty off guard. Upon realizing her mistake, she immediately added with another apologetic smile, “I’m so sorry, I don’t know where that came from.”

“Yeah…” Patty glanced over to where Holtzmann was still hiding behind the table then back to Gilbert. “But about that book, is Holtzmann alright? Because I really need to speak to her about it.”

“Oh, oh! Yeah, she should be. She, um… she does these things sometimes. I don’t…“

Gilbert drifted off with whatever she meant to say, and Patty approached the table, peering over the edge at the woman in the silly helmet crouched there.

“Holtzmann,” said Patty.

Holtzmann looked up at her, and upon seeing Patty she grinned. “Hiya.” She quickly stood up and brushed herself off like nothing had happened.

“Nice hat.”

“You like that?” Holtzmann eyed her up and down as she removed her helmet and goggles, grin turning into a smirk as she added, “You look good, Tolan.”

Patty almost felt compelled to return the compliment, weird and out of place as it was. Holtzmann didn't look much different, same sense of humor, same zany getup, but her hair was much shorter in a way that really worked for her, and Patty had forgotten after all those years what that smirk could do to her. But she was here on business.

“I see you’ve met my Gilbert.”

“Oh, I’m not—“ began Gilbert, but she stopped when Holtzmann holds out her hands to her. "Oh, alright.” Gilbert rolled her eyes, but there was still a faint smile on her lips as she engaged in one of those kind of intricate high-fives with her colleague, and when they finished, Holtzmann shot Patty what could only be a challenging expression. Message received.

She pressed forward, trying her best to ignore that Holtzmann was clearly still not over what happened between them. “Listen, Holtzmann, that book we wrote? I need you to take it down.”

Eyes narrowing, she pursed her lips, then shook her head vigorously. “‘Fraid I can’t do that.” Holtzmann put her goggles back on, picking up her blowtorch again and continuing with whatever she was working on before.

“And why not?” asked Patty, but still keeping a close eye on that flame.

“What she means,” cut in Gilbert, who had been eyeing the back and forth between them anxiously, “is that the money from the book is helping fund our next project.”

“Well, I can’t have that book on shelves. I’m this close to getting tenure—“

Holtzmann snorted, still refusing to look up.

“Holtzy, please. This is a big deal for me.”

Upon hearing the old nickname, she finally looked up at Patty. Good. At least now she was acknowledging her existence. Patty could work with that.

Patty took a deep breath. “Holtzmann,” she tried again. “Will you at least consider it? I can’t have whackjobs coming into my lecture hall asking about ghosts. It’s bad for business.”

Before Holtzmann could respond, Gilbert interjected with a question. “Wait, you said someone was asking about a ghost?”

Patty shrugged. “Yeah, this old dude came in with my book, asking for my help.”

“Well, what did you say?” asked Erin again, sounding eager and impatient and now standing a little bit too close for Patty’s taste as she and Holtzmann watched her expectantly.

“Nothing! What the hell was I supposed to say?”

Gilbert and Holtzmann exchange looks. Holtzmann wiggled her eyebrows, Erin nodding slightly.

“Where is the sighting?” asked Gilbert, turning back to address Patty.

“Oh come on, you guys don’t actually—“

“Where is it?”

Patty sighed in resignation. “The old Aldridge Mansion.”

“Yes!” To her bewilderment, Holtzmann fist-pumped. She and Gilbert looked giddy.

“We got one? We got a lead!” cheered Gilbert in what appeared to be both excitement and disbelief double high-fiving Holtzmann, going through their whole intricate high-five handshake all over again before apparently realizing what she was doing and trying to play it cool. “I mean… Come on, Holtzmann.”

The two women practically run to the door, Holtzmann grabbing a camera off the table and a whooping gleefully. Before heading out Gilbert paused in the doorway, turning back to look at Patty. “Come on!”

“Oh no, count me out of this one—“

“Oh! Oh, nonono! I’m sorry, I just need to make sure everyone is out of the room before I lock up. Yikes, that would have been a messy misunderstanding.”

“But what about the book? Holtzmann,” Patty hissed, trying to keep her voice lower than the other two who were practically shouting.

Holtzmann, who must have been out in the hall, poked her head back in the doorway. “Yello?"

“The book?” asked Patty indignantly. “Will you at least consider taking it down?”

Patty didn’t know when Holtzmann had switched her goggles out for a much smaller pair of tinted glasses, but she looked no less ridiculous. Holtzmann peered at her up over her new glasses, lips twitching in a familiar smirk that always frustrated Patty to no end because she knew meant she was still nowhere close to getting a definite answer to anything. “Consider it considered.” She pushed her glasses back up on the bridge of her nose, clapping her hands together. “Now. Tolan, Gilbert, let’s go. Ghosts, this way!”

And like an excited child, she threw a gloved fist in the air and marched out of there, her colleague giving Patty a look telling her to follow.

She had a decision to make. She could go home, let the matter go, try again later maybe if the problem didn’t resolve itself soon. Patty sighed, resigning herself to the fact that if she wanted her tenure she’d have to work a little harder for it, but there was more to it than that. Her other option was that she could follow her old friend and see if the haunted mansion ghost was real. A part of her wanted to go just to spite Holtzmann and her new partner, but there was perhaps an even smaller part of her that was hoping to prove herself wrong.

“Hello? Tolan?"

Gilbert was still waiting for her, so Patty decided to make a judgement call and promptly followed Gilbert and Holtzmann out of the room and to the old mansion.

—

 _Ok, so the mansion is definitely creepy as hell,_ thought Patty, _but haunted?_

She and the two other women had just finished a very bizarre conversation with the supervisor and the old man Patty met that morning (that involved many references to soiled pants and the supervisor for some reason assuming they were asking for a dead guy rather than his son of the same name) and were now taking a look inside. The poor lighting made the place all dark and shadowy and gave it an eerie feeling, and, ok, if ghosts were real this was definitely the kind of place someone would probably find one. Not that Patty was going to admit such a thing.

For some reason, Holtzmann was smiling as she recorded everything, getting in Patty’s face as she held the camera up close and asked her where she happened to find the world’s largest earrings. Patty ignored her, letting her and Gilbert go on ahead as she took her own sweet time looking around, on the one hand being more than a little afraid and on the other hand feeling foolish for being afraid at all.

The door to the basement was open, and according to the supervisor and the old man that’s where the sighting took place. The rational part of her brain was warning her to steer clear. Then without warning the door creaked open, and Patty nearly jumped back in fright.

“Oh, very funny, Holtzmann,” said Patty, catching up with the other two women who were just in the next room over. “Don’t think I don’t know that was you.”

Holtzmann and Gilbert, who were hovering their little whirring light-up device over pieces of furniture, both turned around to shoot her quizzical looks.

“What are you talking about?” asked Gilbert.

“The door.”

“What about it?”

“It just closed, did you not hear it?”

Holtzmann grinned. “Freeeeaaaaky.”

“Make sure you get over there with the detector,” said Gilbert to Holtzmann, gesturing over to the basement door.

“That thing detects paranormal activity?” asked Patty, pointing to the thing in Holtzmann’s hand.

“It should,” said Gilbert.

“Holtzmann, we tried so many variations of the P-K-E Meter. You and I both no that thing doesn’t work. Won’t you just give it a rest?”

“All prototypes compared to this bad boy,” said Holtzmann, as she pat the thing sounding pleased with herself, not turning to address her but still focused on waving the device around the room. The lights started to whir and spin as it approached the door.

“Nice touch with the glowsticks,” added Patty, not bothering to hide her sarcasm.

“My addition,” said Holtzmann, either ignoring or failing to register Patty’s sarcastic tone.

“It looks like one of those spinny toys you buy your kid at Disneyland."

Gilbert ignores her doubt as well. “Wow, look at the activity on that thing.” She had taken the camera from Holtzmann and was now following her around with it, zooming in close on the basement entrance and the now overactive detector.

“Uh, guys,” said Patty, something up on the wall catching her eye. “I think you should see this.”

The other two join her, following along her line of sight. On the wall is a portrait of a young woman with a sinister expression on her face, head turned down in a way that was so peculiar it would have been funny if it hadn’t been so creepy. As they were staring, the door to the basement creaked again, opening wide and the three women all cried out in pain as their ears popped. The light from the doorway finally catching their attention, they froze as a humanoid figure, translucent, blue, and glowing brightly, came floating out.

Patty didn’t know if it was just her imagination, but the temperature in the room seemed to drop. As the figure approached closer and closer, she could feel her skin crawling as she recognized that the apparition (for that was the only thing it could be, unless it was some kind of trick of the light) bore a striking resemblance to the woman in the portrait. The figure stood there, hovering just below the painting, not moving, not making a sound. Patty was petrified, but in her periphery she could register a faint crunching noise besides her.

“Holtzmann! Really?” hissed Gilbert under her breath.

Patty glanced beside her to see Holtzmann munching away at a can of Pringles tucked under her arm. “Can’t resist these salty parabolas,” said Holtzmann, still staring transfixed at the phantom before them as she snacked. Despite her fear, Patty bit back the urge to laugh.

“She seems… peaceful,” said Gilbert in a hushed voice.

“Uh, you're sure about that?” asked Patty, shooting her a dubious look, but Erin ignored her.

“I’m gonna try and communicate with her.”

Patty and Holtzmann casted sidelong glances at each other, making eye contact for just a moment before going back to Erin as she held a hand out, slowly approaching the ghost.

Keeping her voice calm and even, Gilbert spoke, “Hello… My name is Erin Gilbert, I’m—“

Before she could get out a sentence, the ghost shrieked, jaw opening and eyes glowing as it discharged a green slime that shot out, practically covering Gilbert head to toe. The ghost flew straight through the window, Holtzmann and Patty sprinting out the mansion in pursuit, but the ghost had disappeared from sight. Erin was not far behind, her mouth agape in disgust and horror, Holtzmann shouting as Patty caught an exuberant glean in her eye.

“What the hell just happened?” asked Erin, wiping the goo from her eyes.

“I’ll tell you what just happened!” said Patty, all previous fear and doubt completely forgotten, replaced by newfound elation that was shared with her peers. “We just saw a ghost!”

“We saw a ghost?” asked Gilbert.

“We saw a ghost!” she repeated, pulling Gilbert into a wet, slimy hug, paying no mind to her now ruined clothes.

“You know what that means, right?” asked Gilbert. “Guys. Holtzmann, our research!—“

She grabbed Holtzmann by the shoulders, shaking them furiously, but Holtzmann seemed distracted.

“Everything we wrote about…“ said Holtzmann, eyes wide with dawning realization as her voice trailed off.

“—Is true!” It’s all true!” said Patty, finishing her sentence for her and pulling Holtzmann into a slightly less sticky hug. “Ghosts are real!” When they parted, she looked directly into the lens of Holtzmann’s camera. “You hear that? Ghosts are real!"

—

The video went viral and ended up getting Patty fired. She tried not to make a big deal of it, but it definitely stung. Professor at Columbia, just a hair’s breath away from tenure. Yeah, it definitely stung.

To make a bad situation worse, Holtzmann and Gilbert got fired just after Patty—in a meeting with the dean that included the most unprofessional amount of middle fingers she’s ever seen in her life. She didn’t know there were so many different ways to flip the bird.

It also shouldn’t have been as surprising as it was when Holtzmann confessed to have stolen all the lab equipment as they made their way away from their former university as quickly as they possibly could without trying to call attention to themselves. Apparently, the news was equally as surprising to Gilbert, who had been under the impression that the equipment had belonged to them. Holtzmann seemed completely free from worrying about the consequences of her actions, grinning mischievously like she had just robbed a bank—which, in her mind, this was probably just as good.

Right away they begin to look for a new place to start their business.

First place they checked out was the old fire station, which was so awesome it must’ve been too good to be true. Holtzmann, upon seeing the size of the place, immediately began running around like a kid in a candy store and then tried to climb the fireman’s pole before Gilbert could stop her. It definitely seemed perfect.

“How much?” Patty asked the realtor, she and Gilbert trying not to get distracted by Holtzmann.

“21,000 a month,” she replied.

Which, _holy shit, that's steep_ , but before Patty could even respond, Gilbert snapped reflexively, “Burn in hell.”

Patty snorted, but she collected herself enough for Gilbert and her to apologize profusely to the lady. She felt a twinge of sympathy for Gilbert; she looked thoroughly embarrassed even though internally Patty was throughly amused. Despite the rocky start, Patty was beginning to grow fond of her new associate. Gilbert was alright.

“What my colleague means,” said Patty, smiling and trying very hard to put on a good face after that faux pas. “Is that this place is a little pricey, and I think we need to find something that’s more in the range of our budget.”

Gilbert nodded, making what was probably the good call to not talk for a little while.

—

The firehouse was out of the question, so they ended up settling on the empty floor just above Holtzmann’s and Gilbert’s favorite Chinese restaurant. However, as they settled in Patty quickly discovered that literally being one floor above didn’t stop the restaurant from constantly being late with Gilbert’s orders, or from being weird about their wonton to soup ratios—which Gilbert complained about even though she was always too shy to actually correct them. Patty wasn’t really that big on Chinese food herself, and the constant smell of fry oil and ginger and whatever else tended to make her hungry, but the place was spacious, in relatively good shape, and a frickin’ steal.

Patty was still unpacking boxes when Holtzmann caught her eye. She was staring at Patty from where she was standing across the room and behind the table piled with miscellaneous tools, unfinished devices, and machinery parts. There was music playing, and without even breaking eye contact with her, Holtzmann grabbed a couple of screwdrivers off the table and began twirling them around, dancing to the music.

Patty watched her, unsure what to make of what was going on. Holtzmann mouthed the words, pretending the screwdriver was a microphone as she pretended to sing—making direct eye contact with Patty like it was some kind of performance for her. Despite herself, Patty cracked a grin. Holtzmann did a lot of weird things when they were still friends, but she was pretty sure dancing for her was new. As the music continued to play and as Holtzmann continued to dance, she recognized the song as “Rhythm of the Night”.

Her expression quickly turned from fondness to worry as Holtzmann grabbed a pair of blowtorches and began spinning around with them. “Uh, Holtzmann…” Sure enough, something nearby caught fire, and Patty watched with amazement and slight fear. “Holtzmann, damage control!” said Patty, her a little more forceful this time as she allowed her impatience to get the better of her while she pointed to the now rising flame.

Without even breaking stride in her dance, Holtzmann turned around to grab the fire hydrant and extinguished the fire to the beat of the music.

“Thank you,” said Patty as she breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’d hate to _Debarge_ in like this,” said Gilbert as she walked in the room, grinning slightly at her wordplay and looking very pleased with herself despite needing to raise her voice over the loud volume.

“Is that Debarge?” asked Holtzmann. “I thought it was Devo."

Gilbert stood next to Patty for a moment, arms folded as they both watched Holtzmann fool around. When Holtzmann tried to get her to join in, she refused, but her mouth was upturned at the corners in a slight smile. “Best to get used to it,” she said to Patty. “She can be a little—“

“Oh, I know,” said Patty, not looking away. “Believe me, I know."

Still dancing, Holtzmann tried to wave Patty over to come join her instead, but Patty just shook her head. “Oh, no thanks, Imma have to pass. But maybe next time.” Holtzmann did a weird combination of a shoulder shimmy and a walk down pretend stairs until she was hidden behind the table. Patty couldn’t help it, she laughed.

—

It was weird to be working with Holtzmann again, weird that she no longer had the comfort of a secure job, weird that Holtzmann and Gilbert had so readily welcomed her into the business with open arms, considering how things ended with her and Holtzmann. It was a relief at least she didn’t have to start again at square one (hello, she literally wrote the book on paranormal activity), but it had been years since she’s even thought about ghosts let alone tried hunting one. Her colleagues showed her the ropes, and she picked up quick; most of of the devices she was introduced to were basically perfected prototypes from her and Holtzmann’s dumpster diving days (although she was pretty sure Holtzmann still dumpster dived for most of the stuff they used).

They had next to no business in those early days, but they were still working out the bugs in most of their equipment anyways. At some point, Gilbert stopped being Gilbert, Holtzmann’s new parter, to Patty and instead became Erin, her friend. Holtzmann remained Holtzmann, but that’s because she had always been Holtzmann, and seemed to like it that way. With things sometimes being tense between her and Holtzmann and her speculation that Gilbert sometimes saw her as a rival to Holtzmann’s friendship, Patty didn’t always feel like she was on the same wavelength as her peers. Still, it was nice to be part of a team again.

**Author's Note:**

> The inspiration for this is two-fold:  
> 1) I love Patty Tolan in all her beautiful history nerd glory, but this is just based on theoretical "what if?". I also felt it would be interesting if Patty and Holtzmann where the ones with more of the focus and character arcs as opposed to Erin and Abby (although I love both of them as well).
> 
> 2) This chapter is sadly suffering from a lack of Abby Yates, but I heard the role of Patty was originally written for Melissa McCarthy, but either they felt Leslie Jones was better suited for the part of McCarthy was tired of being type-casted. Anyways I thought it would be interesting if Melissa MCarthy's character was the MTA worker, but still as Abby, not as Patty. Anyways, there will be more Abby in the future!
> 
> Yes, the title is a line from "Rhythm of the Night" because I am so original.
> 
> Feedback is appreciated. Feel free to leave a comment or message me, my tumblr is aceluz!


End file.
